Wednesday, May 21, 2008

( Naar de Nederlandse vertaling.) The album This Here Is Bobby Timmons, played by the Bobby Timmons Trio is one of those records that should be in each serious jazz collection. The Bobby Timmons Trio featured Bobby Timmons on piano, Sam Jones on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums.The album This Here was recorded at the Reeves Sound Studios in New York City in January 1960 for Riverside.

Bobby Timmons - Earl and Carl Grubb - John Coltrane ( NYC 1958) ( photo courtesy Carl Grubbs)Bobby Timmons was born in Philadelphia December 1935, where he learned to play the piano as a kid. When he was 19 years old he moved to New York and started to play jazz in theKenny Dorham Jazz Prophets. He also played with Chet Baker, Sonny Stitt and Maynard Ferguson. In 1958 he became the pianist of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and visited Europe. He played in places like l'Olympia in Paris on the 22nd of November 1958 and a week later two concerts in The Netherlands at the Kurhaus in Scheveningen ( near The Hague) and a night concert at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Other members of that band were Lee Morgan, Benny Golson, Jimmie Merritt and Art Blakey, of course, on drums. In December 1960 Bobby Timmons returned to Art Blakey's group briefly and re-visited our country for two concerts. Bobby Timmons ( photo courtesy Francis Wolff )In this period he had already problems with alcohol and it is said that he started to drink due to artistic frustrations. In this period he also became known by his composition Moanin' that became a hit for Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers recorded for the album with the same name: Moanin'. The tune itself is a very simple composition, a funky, almost gospel-styled tune, with a drive that fetched the audience. It became Bobby Timmons best known composition ( and Blakey's best known recording).

Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers at The Olympia in Paris ( November 1958). f.l.t.r.: Lee Morgan - Benny Golson - Bobby Timmons - Jymie Merritt and Art Blakey. (photo courtesy Jean-Pierre LeLoir)Two other well known compositions are Dis Here ( or This Here) and .... (guess) Dat Dere, which he recorded withCannonball Adderley, he worked with in 1959 between the two Blakey gigs. On this album Bobby Timmons and his Trio play these three compositions, including some standards like My Funny Valentine, Come Rain and Come Shine and Lush Life. During the 1960s Bobby Timmons still made some recordings with his trio before he passed away March 1974 due to cirrhosis of the lever, thanks to his excessive alcohol consumption.Love to share with you a fragment of a 1961 concert by Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers with Bobby Timmons at the piano: Moanin'